624 Sq. Ft. Energy-Efficient Modern Cabin

There is a large sliding barn door that opens up the home to the outside. Inside you’ll notice an open floor plan with the kitchen, dining area and living room. Additionally, there are two sleeping lofts accessible by modern steel staircases.

Related

Facebook Comments

I see so many designs on this site (like this Czech one) by Eastern European, Western European, Scandinavian, British, South American, Australian (and New Zealand) designers (not to mention Asian!) that are so innovative and interesting. U.S. based designers are doing some beautiful things with small and tiny homes, but I sure hope the serious ones are taking note of what’s going on outside of our borders – there’s a lot to learn. Small and tiny doesn’t necessarily mean taking the traditional farmhouse, Colonial, Cape Cod, single wide mobile home or whatever and simply shrinking it. Again, there are lots of American designers that are doing wonderful things, but I’ve lost count of how many breathtaking house designs I’ve seen that I click on the links to pursue further, only to find out they are too far away for me to hire their services or buy their kits! So hopefully there are international small and tiny house conferences being planned where great ideas can be swapped back and forth, and those of us in the market for a little home – wherever we may be – can have the benefit of choosing from the best of the best, design-wise.

Right? It’s tough work having to put together the perfect house piece by tiny piece, plucking a great kitchen idea from this plan, tweaking the windows on that one, lusting after the staircase on yet another. If only the best designers – wherever on the globe they are – could set up a way to offer their services (conferencing via Skype) or sell their pre-fabs and kits (get dealers in various countries) or ship their products from ports around the world (just pick the one closest to you to save on the shipping cost). Then your favorite designer, even if s/he’s in far flung Patagonia, the mysterious East, or the darkest corner of the Dark Continent, can confer with you on a plan, pick up the phone to a builder in Denver, and get your fabulous pre-fab shipped to you in Dallas. Bada bing, bada boom. But then I’m all about instant gratification. 🙂

This has less to do with “ideas” and more to do with context. In Europe, people tend to pay more for smaller, higher quality houses. In the US, people tend to shop by price/square foot. The few people in the US that are interested in downsizing tend to be very price conscious, and are frequently DIY builders.

Then there is the EXTREMELY conservative US building industry which doesn’t as quickly embrace new technologies like the cross laminated timber and large sliding door you see in the project above. Both of those products are available in the US, but cost 2-3 times what conventional products would cost. In Europe those products are available off the shelf at very competitive prices.

There are plenty of architects, designers and builders in the US that are capable of pulling off a project like this one. There are not many clients in the US that are interested in spending $450k on a 600 sqft house…

But yes you highlight an important topic: our building trades are woefully behind most of the world…

Thanks for this. My very recently begun research efforts into tiny/small homes meant I hadn’t given much thought to the realities of geographical differences in house design, beyond the obvious ones related to climate and a few cultural traditions. I probably assumed that the U.S. would offer the greatest availability of options and resources, but now I understand better why that isn’t necessarily true, as well as the reasons for it. Thanks for making me a little smarter!

We helped organize a caravan for a NGO through Mongolia and Russia. The rules (read: ‘suggestions’ lubricated by bribes) seem to be:
***Don’t break the road,
***Don’t break road signs,
***Don’t leave a mess.
Although… often… the pastures were in better shape than the roads. Our suggestion: if your trip permit is good for a month, get several extra back-to-front. And triple your budget for cash and time and people and food and drinking water. Oh, and bring spare tires.

As far as we know, most places toot some blather about ‘official requirements’, but real-world travelers’ real-world non-official reality has no limit on size or weight. Travel is limited by road width, road surface, height of obstacles, and your ability to swing a bribe. Does your route cross bridges? Can you route around weather?

You sound like your proposed THOW exceeds local limits. In the New World, contact Erickson Air-Crane in Canada or Oregon. Their helicopters can transport just about anything with a mass up to 11,000kg/25,000-pounds. And they give their grotesque giants names like ‘Elvis’ and ‘Madge’.

Video your transport, share it with TinyHouseTalk. This could be epic!

I am pleasantly surprised with this house. Not my style per sey but, I could enjoy living here (with a slight change in furnishings). It’s modern but not too much so. It has plenty of light even on a cloudy day.

Wow!! What an awesome house. It’s very ultra modern. It seems like they have a lot of room to move about. I love the architecture and design of this home!! The huge Windows seem to bring in a lot of light. Enjoy your awesome place!! Carol Perry

Great design and use of materials. To answer your questions about designers being available. Yes I guess it must be a bit difficult for most people to get professional advice without having to pay too much. Perhaps in addition to the comment column, we could have a list of designers in different countries who would make some useful comments on plan submissions or write articles on design for Tiny House. For example I am from NZ but working on tiny mobile houses in Beijing. I will put some if the designs and costs on TinyHouse later this year.

I can answer Teressa’s question about size of a mobile on the road from a Chinese perspective but not from a USA regulatory point of view. Chassis structure has to be licenced to be roadworthy in addition to width, weight and height. Each country has its own regulation. So a panel of international designers might be able to furnish us with detail, cost and design critique. I will put some links on here for online websites the will give everyone design inspiration. Best wishes. Michael

I’ve been a devotee of tiny homes ever since I attended The Shelter Institute way back in 1981. My wife and I are finally downsizing into a 700-or-so square foot home of our own design, having raised our family and now we’re empty nesters – so while I love tiny homes, I do enjoy seeing these larger homes here on Tiny House Talk. Thank you, and Happy Holidays!

Certainly interesting but I don’t see the important things like bedrooms, bathroom(s), refrigerator, or any storage space. That is my one pet peeve about most designs…people wear clothes! Where are they stored?

The bedrooms are 2 decent sized lofts at either end of the structure – you can see the staircases that lead up to them, as well as views of the lofts themselves in several of the pictures (and they are shown on the floorplan as well). As this is located in rural Bohemia (designed by a Czech architectural firm), the refrigerator is most likely a small under-counter model, which is very common in Europe; people there are much more likely to shop daily than we are here in the U.S. and don’t need as much space for cold item storage. After looking at the pictures again, I’m wondering if it isn’t located in the drawers we see to one side of the sink? I know they do make under-counter refrigerator models that look a lot like that.

As for clothes, there is a large closet underneath one of the loft bedrooms, between the stairs and the door to the bathroom, that would hold a fair amount of clothes; and as for other storage, there are nooks, crannies, and considerable underfloor storage spaces beneath the trap doors you see by the poofy white floor pillow. Seems to me they thought of everything!

Not to mention that voltages are different–as also codes. Plenty of these ideas can be duplicated. But I am ignorant about whether even in this country thows have to be weighed or certified. Some people take lightweight aluminum campers that have been engineered for certain weights and–very important–weight distribution, and add furnishings without regard to safety.

This is a beautiful house. I think it is also right around the minimum square footage required in some areas around here. I could live in this. Would put a nice modern sectional sofa where the chairs are now, and boom!!

Extremely futuristic, and very odd in it’s shape or form…! I would be worried most of the time about the valley in it’s center or where the two parts of the house are joined together, because of rain water gathering there over time could cause a leaky roof, I would think…!

This is quite nice and if I was younger, I’d want to live in it in a heartbeat. I now prefer everything on one level and there are so many different levels to this that it would be hard to get around. I love the color of the wood and many of the details are fabulous!

The content and information here is for entertainment and should not be taken as professional advice. While we strive to provide accurate and helpful information, we are not professionals. The owner of this website disclaims all warranties expressed or implied regarding the accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of the information provided.

When considering buying/selling from this website or any 3rd party websites linked always be sure to deal with people locally to avoid scams. Do not wire money in any way without first seeing the home (or other product), checking title, and doing your proper due diligence.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.